Authorities "confirmed the building is under contract," Chicago’s NBC 5
reported later Wednesday. "A source familiar with the deal who wished
to remain anonymous because of the pending sale, however, said the
Beyoncé and Jay Z rumor is inaccurate."

"The New Regal is a landmark property and has hosted so many concerts and plays," Chicago-based event promoter and publicist Waddie Grant
told EBONY.com. "The theater would make a good investment for Jay Z,
Beyoncé or anyone. I’m surprised the sale hasn’t happened sooner."

The theater will turn 86-years-old next week and originally opened as the “Avalon Theater” on August 29, 1927. The New Regal Theater has been certified as a "Chicago Landmark" and is
famous for being one of the nation’s foremost examples of “Moorish
Revival” movie palaces.
... The iconic South Side stage was graced by the biggest names in jazz,
blues, R&B and pop from the 1930s to the 2000s—including Josephine
Baker, Nat “King” Cole, Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne, Isaac
Hayes, The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, Minnie Ripperton and many others.

Take a virtual walk into the history of one of Chicago's landmarks HERE.

05 August 2013

The panelists on the latest episode of Real Time with Bill Maher debated stop and frisk, Trayvon Martin and racial profiling. Barney Frank—who recently retired after three decades in Congress and was the House's senior out member—noted that budget cuts fueled by conservative Republican agendas have reduced the number of police officers and social workers. Frank was criticized by fellow panelist Jay-Z after suggesting that people in low-income neighborhoods wanted "more" police officers.

"More jobs would be better than police," said the hip-hop icon to much applause. "I don’t want to scare America, but the real problem is there’s no middle class; the gap between the have’s and the have not’s is getting wider and wider. It’s going to be a problem that no amount of police can solve."

Jay-Z—who grew up in Brooklyn's Marcy Projects—also sparred with Frank over life in public housing. Watch AFTER THE JUMP ...

[I] watch[ed] Fame on television as a high school student in the Bronx and [became] fascinated by this character. The cornrows, the way his body moved, the way he dressed, the way that he dealt with the black world, the way he dealt with the white world - particularly in the arts school that he went to, and I was just fascinated by this character.

But as of 15 and 16 year old, I also thought this was a character that was gay, and we hadn't seen an out gay character on television in the early 1980s, and nothing about the show even suggested that he was an out gay character, but there was just some way that I read the character that struck me as interesting.

The passage on "basketballs vs violins" and hip-hop is particularly insightful.

The example I always use is if we see a black man with a basketball, we don't even have to process that. We've seen it so many times in our lives, we know exactly what that means. If we were to see a black man with a violin, that gives us reason to pause, right? We have all of these questions that are now attached, you know, how did he get the violin? Does he know how to play the violin? How can he afford the violin? I mean we can go on and on.

Hip-hop becomes a very interesting space in this conversation because it [has] monetized the image of black masculinity, and made several of these figures incredibly wealthy - the Jay-Zs and the Snoop Doggs and the Will Smiths But it's also a space that limits our understanding of the range of possibilities of what black masculinity can look like.

It's a terrific interview and definitely worth the time to listen.

Among other credits, Ray also danced in The Weather Girls' music video for "It's Raining Men". The song and video have became in gay and Black gay pop culture. Ray later struggled with addictions and homelessness and died from HIV/AIDS-related complications in 2003. He was only 41-years-old.

On a personal note: Professor Neal is spot-on with his take of Leroy. I was a pre-teen and teenager during the television run of Fame in the 1980s. Leroy was fearless, fascinating and all kinds of sexy. It was one of the very few television shows that I watched during those years.

Just like President Obama’s statement has had a “halo” effect among some Black voters, Jay-Z has had a similar effect in hip-hop. The rapper’s endorsement has sparked a major conversation about gay rights and homophobia in the American hip-hop music scene—and the conversation has jumped from the barbershops to talk radio, Twitter and Facebook.

Hova’s comments were rapidly followed by similar endorsements from actor Will Smith—who began his career in rap—as well as legendary rap icon Chuck D of Public Enemy. Entertainment, rap icon and fashion mogul Russell Simmons—a longtime gay ally—tweeted his support to his 1.6 million followers: “Extremely proud of Jay-Z for this.” Boxer Floyd Mayweather--who has a history of gay-baiting and homophobia--came out for marriage equality. So did dancehall artist Beenie Man, who has a troubling history of violent anti-gay lyrics.

This week’s narrative was a breath of fresh air in an industry better known for its homophobic lyrics and hostility toward gays—such Busta Rhymes violent remarks about gay men and Ja Rule’s whack comments about gays “ruining” society. And this is despite the fact that many younger Black gay men and women are die-hard hip-hop lovers.

15 May 2012

Jay-Z appeared on CNN to express his enthusiasm for President Obama's historic announcement on equal marriage: "It's the right thing to do."

"I’ve always thought it as something that was still holding the country back. What people do in their own homes is their business. Who you can choose to love whoever you love. That’s their business. It's no different than discriminating against blacks. It’s discrimination plain and simple. ... It's the right thing to do, so whether it costs him votes or not - again, it's not about votes. It's about people. It's the right thing to do as a human being."

Part owner of an NBA team, songwriting, producing records, designing a fashion line, husband to Beyoncé, a brand new father ... Jay-Z has 99 problems but same-sex marriage ain't one.

25 May 2010

Shooting his portion "took less than an hour to shoot including lighting and the different close up to wide shots," Lamar tells R20. "The director, Clifton Bell, is amazing and easy to work with. And shooting on the Brooklyn Bridge is very fun because you have so many tourists from around the world watching you work."

09 May 2010

After more than seven decades in show business, six Emmy Awards and a high octane Facebook campaign, the fabulous Betty White finally hosted Saturday Night Live. And from the opening monologue—"Now that I know what Facebook is, it sounds like an awful waste of time"—to "MacGruber" and the Census interviewee, Betty killed in every skit. Killed it. Last night's episode was easily the show's best in decades.